Innovations in Action: Emily Mengel's Story

As a WakeMed clinical engineer, Emily Mengel provides high-level support throughout the hospital – developing solutions to clinical and technical problems as they arise. She’s also involved in evaluating new technologies and working with our Information Services teams to get them implemented. Over the past 18 months, thinking outside the box became a regular routine as the hospital was faced with sicker patients that required shifting nursing units to a higher level of care to support growing COVID-19 volumes.

Early on in the pandemic, 3E was transitioned from a cardiovascular intermediate care unit to an intensive care unit – which allowed WakeMed to care for the increasing number of critically-ill patients. To support this transition, mobile eICU carts were purchased that allowed us to provide an increased level of support for our sickest patients by keeping them monitored both on the unit and by the eICU team located remotely in WakeMed’s Operations Center off Atlantic Avenue.

However, during the COVID-19 surge of August 2021, ICU patient volumes skyrocketed across the system – leaving a critical gap in the technology needed to connect overflow ICU patient rooms to the eICU for backup monitoring. While there were 14 eICU mobile carts, there were up to 17 ICU patients on 3E at any given time.

Mengel’s quick thinking took over. She realized there were some unused AvaSure cameras and Observer software, which were traditionally used for telesitting behavioral health patients. They had also been used in recent months to help clinical teams communicate with patients from outside the room to preserve PPE and save time donning and doffing.

Mengel wondered if we could repurpose those cameras to allow eICU teams to keep a visual watch on patients from the Operations Center. After some trouble-shooting, Mengel’s idea paid off with a successful technical integration. eICU care teams could see and talk with patients, family members and on-site care team members to enhance the level of care we were able to provide. While more eICU mobile carts have been added since then, this critical thinking provided an important stopgap during the height of the surge.

Emily’s engineering career is based on innovative thinking, and she sees herself as a problem-solver, not a hero. She explains that throughout the pandemic, the Clinical Engineering team has been focused on taking technology WakeMed already owns and using it in new and creative ways to better serve our patients. “Finding solutions to problems that have a real-world impact on our patients is so rewarding,” Mengel explains. “The last 18 months have been so busy – there have been so many problems to address, but our team enjoys supporting the front line and seeing the impact of our work.”

"The innovative thinking, problem-solving and teamwork we've seen from Clinical Engineering throughout the COVID-19 pandemic has been exceptional," explains Dr. David Kirk, system associate chief medical officer. "In this case, Emily's work to repurpose the AvaSure cameras allowed our eICU team to keep eyes on all our sickest patients during the height of the COVID-19 surge - which is critical to keeping our patients as safe as possible, 24/7